New fluorous bipyridine ligands for copper‐catalyzed atom transfer radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate in the thermomorphic mode |
| |
Authors: | Norman Lu Ching‐Lung Lin Tsung‐Chi Chen |
| |
Affiliation: | Institute of Organic and Polymeric Materials, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 106, Taiwan |
| |
Abstract: | The atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of methyl methacrylate (MMA) is often carried out under homogeneous conditions, so the residual metal catalyst in the polymer often influences the quality of the polymer and causes environmental pollution in the long run. Novel CuBr/4,4′‐bis(RfCH2OCH2)‐2,2′‐bpy complexes (Rf = n‐C9F19, n‐C10F21, or n‐C11F23; 2,2′‐bpy = 2,2′‐bipyridine) are insoluble in toluene at room temperature yet readily dissolve in toluene at elevated temperatures to form homogeneous phases for use as catalysts in the ATRP reaction, and the Cu complexes precipitate again upon cooling. The CuBr/4,4′‐bis(n‐C9F19CH2OCH2)‐2,2′‐bpy system produced the best results (e.g., polydispersity index by gel permeation chromatography = 1.26–1.41), in that the residual Cu content in the polymer was as low as 19.3 ppm when the ATRP of MMA was carried out in the thermomorphic mode. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008 |
| |
Keywords: | atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) catalysts gel permeation chromatography (GPC) |
|
|